New York Awaits
by Minerakf
Summary: The sequel to When the Sea Flies! Percy and the flock's secrets have been revealed to the demigods of Camp Half-Blood. The demigods and birdkids must go to New York, and find the people who are controlling the DNA testing facilities around the world. Can they stop Itex? Or will the evil company catch them, and experiment on them all?
1. A New Prophecy is Uttered

Yay! The second book! I hope you all enjoyed the first book! I'm sorry, the title of this book is kind of lame... New York does await though! Thanks for the nice reviews everyone! So, enjoy!

 **Max:**

I couldn't believe we just told a giant camp of people our secret. It was still baffling to me how I managed. I should have just kicked the centaur upside the head, and threatened him until he swore on the River Styx not to tell.

But now it was over and done with. Percy looked so relieved, it was all worth it. I realized I was calmer now as well. It was like the dam had burst inside of me, and my worry flowed away.

"So what now?" asked Percy. "Now that the prophecy is complete?"

"I don't know..." said Annabeth, shrugging.

Then, a girl in the crowd started glowing green. Her body went rigid, and her eyes rolled back in her head. She opened her mouth, and green smoke swirled out in tendrils. Then, she started rasping in a voice not her own:

 _A single link joins together each side,_

 _Follow the leader, Maximum Ride,_

 _Journey together to stop the dark forces,_

 _Take ship, dragon, and winged horses,_

 _Find a beast that talks, and an old enemy,_

 _The secret to success is to use the Sea._

 _The whitecoats must be stopped at any cost,_

 _Listen to the Voice, or all will be lost._

The poor girl collapsed onto the ground as soon as she finished the prophecy. A boy with blonde hair lifted her onto a stretcher two other kids were holding, and they rushed off.

"Well," said Chiron cheerily, "I think this calls for a quest."

"And the leader is Max..." said Annabeth, looking uncomfortable with the idea. I laughed, and said, "Obviously... When it comes to kicking Eraser butt, I am your only option for leader."

"Whatever," said Gazzy. "Don't mind us..."

"You know what I meant Gazzy. You're not mature enough to lead a quest."

"Well, if I'm the leader, let's go now!" I said.

"Alright, I'll get the Argo," said Leo.

"Let me go get my computer," said Annabeth.

"I'll go get the Pegasi," Percy said, and walked off towards the stables. A few minutes later, we were all gathered outside the Big House, the Argo II anchored above, and Festus circling high above it.

We flew up to the flying ship, and the campers watched, amazed. I laughed. It felt weird to be ogled at like this.

"Check me out!" Iggy cried to the crowd.

"I am a boss!" shouted Gazzy.

Percy laughed, and took to the air on his new wings.

I heard gasps and whispers among the campers, and then we soared into the sky.

The other demigods flew to the ship using their own methods.

Annabeth was riding the pegasus called Blackjack. Jason just flew. Hazel rode Frank who was being a pegasus at the time, and Piper rode Porkpie.

The second we landed on the ship, pain flared through my head.

 ** _Go to New York. Find the next testing Facility and destroy it_** , said the voice.

 _Who are you?!_

 ** _I am the voice._**

 _Not helping..._

"Umm, Leo..." I said.

"Yes Miss Leader?"

I scowled and said, "The voice just told us to go to New York, find the next testing facility and destroy it."

"Then let's go. New York awaits!"

Then, the Argo II set sail, and we were off to New York, to destroy the stupid whitecoats and the dumb Erasers that had terrorized us since we were born.

 **Percy:**

I could imagine just how Annabeth felt. I was still getting over the fact that I had wings. Gods I felt so exposed whenever she glanced at my shirt where it bulged out a little.

"You have arrived at your destination!" cried Leo over the intercom, imitating the robotic lady on a GPS.

We scrambled out of our chair from where we had been eating an early lunch. Annabeth had stared at me like I had three heads when I ate three cheeseburgers, an entire milkshake, and two plates of fries.

"What is up with you and eating lately?!" she cried.

"I dunno..." I said, shrugging. "I'm just hungry..."

"Annabeth," interrupted Max, "He eats more, just like us, because the avian DNA sped up his metabolism. We eat a lot to sustain calories for flying."

Annabeth frowned, and then we went up to see where Leo was parking us.

Apparently, he thought that landing in that one giant reservoir near the Metropolitan Museum of Art was a great way to avoid attention... Not...

People were staring at the Argo II like it was a flock of geese, or a big fountain.

"Really Leo?" asked Annabeth, frowning.

"Ahh, we probably just look like fog over the lake or something.

"Still..." Jason said, looking at the people near the lake who had resumed their activities like a giant flying ship hadn't just landed in the lake.

"Does that building over there need blowing up?!" asked Coach Hedge, pointing across the Central Park lawn to the museum. It was bigger than I remembered... Wow, it was still impressive looking, after all these years.

"Um, no..." I said. "Just, go watch some boxing matches or something..."

"Fine," huffed the old satyr, and stomped down the stairs to the bedrooms.

"Festus says he used his tracker to learn more about labs around the world , but he only found a few big ones, and none were listed as recombinant DNA facilities or anything like that..." said Leo.

"Okay, why are we here then?" asked Annabeth.

"Well, the prophecy said to listen to the Voice..."

"And the Voice said ' Go to New York. Find the next testing Facility and destroy it'" said Max.

"Right. Festus said that largest network of science laboratories was something called Itex..."

"The largest? How do we know that the facilities are part of this huge company?" asked Hazel.

"Who knows..." said Jason.

"I think..." began Gazzy.

"What?" asked Leo excitedly.

"Well, I think I overheard one of the whitecoats say something about something called the International Team of Experimentation..." muttered Gazzy.

"That would be abbreviated as ITE, but what about the X? asked Annabeth.

"Maybe... I got it! It might be the Roman numeral X, meaning ten, as in, they have 10 companies around the world!"

"That is brilliant Jason!" cried Piper.

"Sounds legit to me..." I said, chuckling.

"So, that still doesn't explain why we are here..."

"Well, Festus only found five laboratories in the state of New York, but the biggest one is an Itex lab. Supposedly, it's located just two blocks from here."

"Great thinking Leo," Annabeth complimented him. I was impressed with Festus more than I was with Leo... Ever since Piper had magically brought the dragon alive, it had been great at thinking for itself, and it loved to help.

"Alright, so let's go find out more about this weird Itex place, and if it's the same kind of place, then lets blow it up!" I shouted, and with a cry of rage towards against the whitecoats, we jumped over the side of the Argo II. Annabeth was riding Blackjack, Piper was riding Porkpie, and Frank was carrying Hazel as a Roman eagle.

I spread my wings and fist-pumped the air. Then, suddenly, I heard screams from below.

People were pointed up at us from the great lawn, and I heard someone shout, "Oh my GOD! Those kids have wings!"

I gasped. How could they see us through the Mist?

"Oops," said Max, flying over towards me. "I forgot... The Mist doesn't hide us."

"Shoot!" cried Annabeth, and pulled Blackjack into a dive, closely followed by Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank. They landed out of the way by a tree. The mortals didn't even cast a glance at them, and I saw Blackjack flicker, and change into a regular horse, then back again. The Mist was working just fine for them.

With Max leading the way, the flock landed in the middle of the crowd of mortals. I landed hard beside Max, panting.

"I'll handle this," she said.

"Who are you?!" cried one of the people.

"Are you angels?!"

One of the many in the crowd fainted, and several others caught the poor person, and laid him down on a bench.

"Citizens of New York! Behold!" cried Max, in an imposing voice.

She spread out her wings, and the crowd gasped yet again. Someone shrieked.

"It is true! We are angels! If you do not change your sinful ways, doom will come upon you! DOOM!" she shouted, and people shrieked, and fled. I wondered how she had pulled off the angel thing, looking like a gangster with her bloodied t-shirt, and ripped jeans. Mortals would fall for anything man.

We took to the air, and met up with the group in an empty alleyway.

Once we landed, Gazzy, Iggy, and me burst out laughing. "Nice one!" cried Gazzy, in between fits of laughter.

Iggy high-fived Max, and Leo mimicked Max, "I am the Angel of Death! Behold! Doom is upon you!" then burst out in laughter as well.

"Come on guys, we have a lab to get to. WITHOUT being seen," said Max, glaring at Gazzy, Iggy, Leo, and me until we stopped laughing.

"Alright, let's go kick some Whitecoat butt!" I shouted, receiving the REALLY? look from Annabeth.


	2. International Team of ExperimentersX?

Yay! Second Chapter! Sorry I'm posting SOOOO slow. I feel so bad, but lately I've been busy, and have had so much work, by the time I finish, I have a headache, and can't think straight to write on the story :( But anyways, back to posting, yippee, with a headache too, because I don't want to put it off any longer. Forgive me if this chapter is short, or boring or something. I HAVE A HEADACHE! AGH! Don't forget to check out my new story, called Percy Jackson and the Scavengers of Pyrrhia.

 **Fang:**

I was starting to trust Percy, but the other demigods, not so much. I didn't like how Max told them all of our secrets, trusted that this wasn't some kind of trick the whitecoats rigged. But, I guess not, since they rescued us from the School and all. Whatever. I didn't know what to think about them. I couldn't decide whether to love them or hate them. Only time would tell...

 **Percy:**

We snuck through the alleyways, edging closer to the place that Leo suspected was where the whitecoats worked at. Annabeth brushed against my shoulder, and I winced.

"Sorry..." she muttered, looking at me with an expression I couldn't quite place. Guilt? Sorrow?

I shrugged and said quietly, "It's alright."

"Okay, the entrance is just on the right once we leave this alley. I checked, and the coast is clear. Make sure no-one sees you," whispered Leo, pulling his head back around to face us.

We crept out looking both ways, and ducked stealthily behind a dumpster. Well, semi-stealthily. Iggy kind of tripped over an empty soda can, and made a huge racket, but luckily, nobody heard.

"What's the plan?" I whispered.

"We go in and kick Eraser..." Max started, before she was cut off by Annabeth saying, "We send in Frank, as an ant, therefore he can go through the gap between the door and the floor, and he spies, makes sure that these people are actually the same people who kidnapped Percy, and THEN 'kick Eraser butt,'"

Max glared at her, and I got the feeling she wasn't used to having her commands questioned at all. And I knew already that she hated being wrong.

"Great..." said Frank. "Why is it always me that has to go into the dangerous lab as a tiny creature?"

"Because you are the only one who can even turn into a tiny creature," said Annabeth, rolling her eyes.

Frank sighed, became Frank the Ant, and scuttled off towards the door. I watched him slip inside. Fifteen minutes later, the ant scurried back, changed back into Frank, and said, "Yep. Definitely the place. Once I was inside, I managed to slip in through the air lock doors when someone walked through. The second I was in, all I could hear was kids screaming and a dog howling, and it smelled like bleach. It was horrible!"

"A dog howling?" asked Max.

"Don't ask me!" cried Frank.

"OK, let's go 'kick some Eraser butt' as Max says. But we can't destroy the place till every mutant kid is out," Annabeth said, and I drew Riptide. Within seconds, the first door was shredded. There were two doors in a small room, both air-locked, and they both had keypads. I tried to hack through these doors, but my sword just bounced off of them with loud clangs.

"How the heck?!" I cried, throwing my sword down in frustration.

Leo walked up the keypad, placed his palm on it, and furrowed his brow, but nothing happened.

"Darn it! This thing is so complicated, I doubt even Hephaestus could crack it!"

"Let me give it a go!" sad Nudge, out of the stunned silence.

"What?! Do you have mechanical powers as well?" cried Leo, baffled.

"No. Well, kind of. I can sort of, well, use my mind to hack computer type things, and get passwords." she said very rapidly.

"Yeah, like the one time when she was 9, and she cracked the FBI's firewall, and hacked into their systems, and sent everyone there pictures of cute kittens," said Gazzy excitedly.

"WHAT?!" Leo cried, bursting out into laughter. Frank nearly choked on the granola bar he had started to eat, and Annabeth's eyes widened as she exclaimed, "She hacked the FBI firewalls to send pictures of KITTENS to them?!"

"Yep, that's my little Nudge!" said Max proudly, ruffling Nudge's hair.

"Hey! Stop it! You're ruining my hairdo!" cried Nudge, jerking away from Max. Max just rolled her eyes, and said, "Go ahead Nudge. Give it a go."

Nudge stepped forward, and placed her palm on the keypad. She shut her eyes tight, and started muttering strings of numbers and random letters to herself. After what seemed like an eternity, her eyes burst open, and she cried, "I've got it!"

She punched in the numbers 6492015, and the door slid open with a quiet hiss.

"Sweet! I need to borrow you sometime, and hack into Annabeth's computer !" cried Leo, and Annabeth glared at him, and said, "Not happening, fire-boy."

Leo snickered maliciously, and rubbed his finger together like he was plotting something.

"Oh, it is SO happening, Miss Know-it-all."

"Go and roll in some machine grease why don't you?" said Annabeth, scowling.

"You can go tell your mom that I said..." Leo started, before Jason cut him off, yelling, "Cut it out, you two!"

Leo, and Annabeth glared at each other, and I just chuckled.

We stepped into the white-washed hallway. For some reason, there wasn't a person, or Eraser, to be seen. Everything was absolutely silent.

"This is creepy..." said Nico," out of the silence. Of course he had to show up behind me, when we were trying to not make any noise.

I yelped like a girl, and shrieked, "When did you get here?!"

"Um, I kind of was a stowaway on your ship, and I followed you here," he said, hanging his head guiltily.

My yell had echoed through the eerily silent lab, and we all drew weapons. Erasers were going to show up anytime now. But no wolf-men came flooding around corners. It remained absolutely silent in the cold white hall.

"Okay, maybe they left for the day. Let's go rescue some mutants, then blow this place to smithereens!" cried Leo, running down the hallway toward the first room.

"They never leave for the day," said a scowling Max.

"Oh..." said Leo, and stopped halfway down the corridor. "They don't?"

"I agree with Leo. We should get started now. Use this to our advantage. Maybe they all just... died?" said Annabeth, shrugging.

Max, snickered, and said, "Oh, surrreeee, they just all fell down and died. This is some kind of trap,"

But the rest of the flock, Piper, and Hazel had already raced into the first room.

"Hey, wait up!" cried Max, and the rest of us, dashed into the room as well.

Lined up against the walls were cages, but only three were occupied. The first had a little girl, no older than four, who had scaly skin, and when she saw us, she turned to look at us with snake-like eyes, and a forked tongue slithered between her parched lips.

The second cage only had a little black terrier. It looked perfectly normal... Why did they have a dog here?

The third had something so grotesque, I couldn't even stand to look at it. It looked like eighty percent slug, eighteen percent goat, and only two percent human. It had a slimy body, with a goat's snout, a human mouth, slug eyestalks, and goat legs. The eyes on the eyestalks were full of sorrow, and the thing was so pitiful looking, I felt like crying. This HAD to stop. With a grunt of rage, I swung my sword down at the lock on the cage, as hard as I could.


	3. Total The Talking (and Bouncing) Dog

Hi! Another chapter woop woop! I am feeling motivated, and I have loads of ideas, so this chapter ought to be a good one! Thanks for following and favoriting silvercheetah! Also, replying to your comment kelphead, *gasp* yes indeed! Thanks for all the support, and enjoy!

 **Max:**

In one of the cages, there was a blob with goat legs, a snout, and eyestalks, like on a slug. Another had just a plain old Scottish Terrier. I wondered what they had done to him. Whatever it was, he didn't look mutant at all. The last cage had a snake girl, who looked so sad, I wanted to cradle her in my arms, and them go machine gun crazy on the whitecoats who had done this to her.

Percy gave a grunt of anger, and his face contorted. He swung his celestial bronze sword down at the lock on the slug mutant's cage, and it cut cleanly through, like the metal was made of cheese. The crumpled lock fell to the floor, and the cage door creaked open. The slug thing's eyes lit up, and it jumped up and down twice, leapt out of the cage, and ran out the door, emitting whoops from its human mouth all the way down the hall.

Two seconds later, the next lock was broken, and Angel was giggling as the Scottish Terrier bounded around her, yipping with excitement. Suddenly, the little dog launched up into the air, almost reaching the ceiling. It landed on the floor, slipped on the hard slick surface, scrabbled a little, and was up and running again. Now I knew why he was here. They had given him some kind of animal DNA that made him able to jump super high. Kangaroo? Frog? It didn't matter.

Percy demolished the lock on the last cage, but the snake girl didn't get out of the cage.

"Come on! You're free now!" cried Percy, pulling at the snake girl's scaly arm.

The poor little girl shook her head, and pulled her arm away. She grabbed the door of the cage, and pulled it shut.

"We won't hurt you! This is your one chance to escape! If you don't you're going to go up in flames with this place!"

Either the snake girl couldn't understand him, or she didn't care, because she sat down stubbornly, and refused to budge.

Percy slashed through the cage, and was about to pick up the screeching little girl, when a gruff voice from behind them said, "Oh, no need to worry about that... You won't have time to set this building on fire, if we've already caught you!"

We whipped around, and I wished I had a sword like the demigods did.

The group of whitecoats and Erasers started laughing, and one of the whitecoats said, "Foolish children. Your little swords won't hurt us!"

The whitecoat raised a gun, and pointed it straight at me.

"Wanna bet?" asked Nico, lunging for the whitecoat with his stygian iron blade.

BANG! A bullet flew for my face. Everything seemed to slow down. I saw Nico swinging his sword toward the whitecoat, the whitecoat smiling devilishly. The bullet inched towards me, but I couldn't make myself move.

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX!" bellowed Fang, and I shut my eyes, waiting for my death.

Then, I heard a grunt, and hot liquid splattered on my face. Fang fell to the ground in front of me, grasping his chest.

"Fang!" I screamed, and bent over him. He had jumped in front of me at the last second, and taken the bullet for me. No. No! NOO!

His eyes flickered shut, and his breathing turned raspy. He coughed up blood, and I cried, "Fang, No! You're not going to die on me! No! Fang, wake up!"

I shook his shoulders, and then, pulled back his hand. His chest was sticky with blood, but luckily, the bullet had gone all the way through. It didn't appear to have hit any vital organs. I ripped off my shirtsleeves, and wrapped them around his chest, trying to staunch the blood. Within seconds, they were almost soaked.

I was vaguely aware of the fight going on around me. "Take that!" I heard Angel scream, throwing a smaller cage at one of the whitecoats. Leo shouted, "Our blades might not hurt you, but my fire will! HAHA!" and then blasted a whitecoat in the face with a flame.

"Take that! And that!" Nico shouted, slicing at whitecoats with his mortal killing blade. Jason and Percy worked together on a group of Erasers. Angel and Piper were shouting out commands.

"Do the hokey pokey, and turn yourselves around!" sung Angel.

A couple of Erasers started doing the hokey pokey, then growled, shook their heads, and lunged at Angel. She sidestepped, and then, out of the chaos, with only seven Erasers remaining, and only two whitecoats, I heard Jeb shouting, "Max! Give it up! "

Jeb?! I sat the unconscious Fang up against the wall and turned to face our old friend.

"Jeb?!" I cried, "What are you doing here?!"

"It's pointless to fight!" he said, ducking and narrowly missing being decapitated by Nico's deadly sword.

"No!" screamed Piper. "It's useless for YOU to fight! Run! Save yourselves, we're too dangerous!"

Both of the whitecoats, and four of the remaining Erasers ran screaming from the room, and down the hallway. They didn't come back.

There was shocked silence, and Jeb stared at Piper, along with the one Eraser who had fought through Piper's charm speak.

The wolf-man glared at me with bloodshot eyes, and I gasped. No! Why?!

It... It... was... Ari! Jeb's HUMAN boy... They... they... had turned him into an Eraser...

"Yes Max..." growled Ari, "They turned me into an Eraser. "All because Jeb let you go!"

A single tear fell from Jeb's eye, and he turned to look at me with an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry Max... But they threatened to kill him if I didn't re-capture you..."

Ari lunged at me, claws outstretched. I kicked him in his snout, and danced nimbly away. He was easily the biggest Eraser I had ever seen. His claws sharper than knives, and his teeth were filed to needle points. He spun around, and one of his claws grazed my shoulder. I gritted my teeth, and flung myself at his legs, bringing him to the floor. I managed to pin down his arms, and we rolled around on the floor.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gazzy, Iggy, and Leo cooking up a mega-bomb.

Piper and Angel were directing all their power at Jeb, trying to distract him so that Nico could injure him. I hoped they didn't kill him. He was only trying to protect his boy. Oh what was I thinking. He was a filthy murderer, just like the rest of these scum.

He was holding out though. I looked at him for a second too long, my attention faltering, and Ari took the opening. He managed to pull his right arm free, and delivered a stunning punch to my chest. I lurched back, and he threw me to the ground.

He raked his claws across my chest, and my ribs felt like they were on fire. I screamed, and launched myself onto a stunned Ari, toppling him over. I delivered a swift kick to his neck, and landed on his chest. He wheezed, and coughed up blood. I grabbed his ugly head, and punched him so hard in the face, his nose broke instantly, with a giant crack. His head fell limp to the floor, and I stood up, wiping the blood on my pants.

Then I finally realized what I had done... I had snapped... Oh god. He was just a seven year old boy... He had been trying to kill me, I will admit, but he never deserved this... His nose wasn't the only thing that had broken. The force of my blow had jerked his head back so hard his neck snapped like a pretzel. I had just killed him.

"Oh god," I muttered.

I saw Percy pick up Fang's limp form. The bleeding was stopping. Annabeth had ripped apart some Eraser clothes, and wrapped them around his chest.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" cried Gazzy. "The bombs going to blow in thirty seconds!"

Iggy pulled me to my feet, and I saw Jeb give me one scared look, then he saw his dead son, and cried out. He raced over to his son's limp body.

As we raced out of the lab, I heard Jeb scream, "How could you kill your own brother?!"

Then we were out on the road, racing down the street. Leo whistled, and Festus swooped down out of the sky. He hopped on, and swooped away. I watched as Frank turned into a Roman eagle and scooped up Hazel in his claws. Jason grabbed Piper's hand, and willed the winds to carry them away. I helped Percy lift Fang. For some reason, Angel had the bouncy little terrier in her arms. I didn't know how she was managing to fly with that thing. It must have weighed at least fifteen pounds, and she was only thirty with her hollow bones and all.

A boom shook the ground below us, and the laboratory exploded in a ginormous fireball. Ash and smoke swirled through the air. I felt so bad for the mutants we had left in there, but the flock always comes first. Besides, the majority of them were so badly mutated like that slimy blob creature, they didn't even stand a chance in the regular world. I wanted to rip the whitecoats heads off for torturing that snake girl to the point where she was too frightened to accept being rescued. She had died, along with the rest of the mutants, when she had a chance to get out of there.

And... Fang... They had shot him. They had shot MY fang. I screamed in outrage, almost causing Percy to drop Fang.

I noticed that he had a bad gash on his chest, and he was breathing heavily.

"Hey Iggy, come help me over here!" I called out.

Before Iggy could take Fang from Percy, the giant bronze dragon swooped over.

"Hey! Looks like you need some help over here! Anyone want a ride on a bronze dragon?!" cried Leo.

"Yes, please! We all said. Soon, Percy and me had fang strapped to the dragon's warm back. We sat in the surprisingly comfortable, warm seats, and Percy slumped forward and started snoring.

Within minutes, we were back to the Argo II. Hedge grunted when he saw we were back, narrowed his eyes, and said, "You blew something up without me..."

"Sorry, old friend," said Leo, hopping off the dragon. and patting the satyr on the back, "Maybe next time,"

Coach Hedge just grunted, and muttered something about cupcakes, then stomped down the stairs to the below-decks.

Annabeth helped me get Fang unstrapped, and we propped him up against the main mast.

"It's pretty bad..." said Annabeth.

She fed him a tiny square of ambrosia. She had just fed him the last chunk, when she gasped and shouted , "Oh Gods, Oh Gods! I just killed him! Oh Gods! Curse my stupidity!"

Did she just say... she KILLED FANG?!

"YOU WHAT?!" I cried, grabbing her arm.

"Ambrosia!" she cried. "Mortals burn up if they eat ambrosia! So do animals!"

My face blanched, and I grasped Fangs arm. "No! No! Fang!" I screamed.

Annabeth wept into her knees, "It's all my fault! OH GODS!" she wailed.

Percy ran towards us, crying "Calm down! If he was going to die, he would already be a pile of ash!"

Annabeth stopped sobbing, and looked up. "How?!" she cried. "He... he... has to be a demigod then..."

Fang suddenly sat up, gasping, and spat out some blood. Oh thank god. I wrapped my arms around him, and he muttered weakly, "Max... The others?"

"They're fine," I said. "Oh god, Fang, we thought you were dead for sure! Annabeth accidently gave you ambrosia, but somehow, you didn't burn up!" I cried out, hugging him fiercely. He chuckled, but it came out more like a wheeze. "Yeah, I guess I'm pretty lucky aren't I?" he rasped.

"Let's get you to a bed so you can rest," I said.

"Hey Percy, will you help me carry Fang to the beds?"

"Sure," he said, and we hauled Fang into one of the rooms.

We gently set him on the bed.

"Are you going to be alright?" I asked.

"It can't get much worse than this..." Fang laughed, then coughed weakly.

"Okay, I'm going to go now. Just, press the button on the side-table if you need anything," I told him.

Leo had fixed little buttons beside the bed in every room, so that if anything went wrong, we could project ourselves onto the intercom. Supposedly, this had been used by Percy one time, and he had bellowed, "Agh! Duck monster!" because he had seen a giant monster with a bill of sorts through his window. It had been quickly exterminated by Festus.

I went back to the deck, and found the rest of the flock looking at the hopping dog. Angel giggled every time it hopped.

"Why did you bring that thing?" I asked her, scowling.

"Aww, come on Max, can I keep it?" she begged me.

"No, and that's final."

"Pleeeaaase?" she said, and gave me puppy dog eyes. I'm not sure if she used her mind-control powers, or her puppy dog eyes won me over, but I sighed and said, "Fine, but you have to carry him, and feed him."

"Hooray!" she cried. "I'm going to call him Total!"

"Okay..." I laughed.

"This is fun! I've never had a name before. But, given that I'm on a flying ship with flying kids, it's not the weirdest thing I've seen all day," yipped the little dog.

We all stared at the little black terrier.

Percy started laughing uncontrollably, and so did Leo. Annabeth snickered, and my flock-mates just stared.

"You...you... Talk?!" cried Angel.

"Well , isn't that what I'm doing right now?" asked Total.

"Ooookay..." I said, "Well, Total the talking dog, now that you are a member of the flock, you have to do your part in the flock, which means obeying me, and of course, fighting the Erasers/whitecoats with us. Got it?"

Total raised his paw to his forehead, and gave me a salute, saying, "Definitely!"

"Hooray!" cried Angel.

Total bounded up to her, and gave her a sloppy kiss. She giggled, and scratched his belly.

This was a very odd day, I'll say that much...


	4. Golden Blood

Next chapter! Well, thanks for supporting. That's all I've got to say. Enjoy!

 **Annabeth:**

I still couldn't believe what had happened today. Finally, I collapsed in the top bunk of the bunk bed me and Percy shared. Call us weird. Whatever. We had been through Tartarus together. Separating for more than fifteen minutes, to go to the bathroom, or go get something, was a No-No.

I'd seen a little girl, who had snake scales... I'd seen a little terrier who could talk, and jump over five feet into the air, and who was now named Total. I'd seen the lab go up in a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke. Who knew how many people we'd killed... Innocent children... We'd managed to save two out of hundreds of innocent children and animals being experimented on in that hell-hole...

And then, on top of it all, I'd almost killed Fang. The look on Max's face, when she realized what I had done, was the look I'd seen in the mirror for months after Percy was stolen from me the first time. It was the look I had seen reflected in the still waters of the canoeing lake, after Percy was snatched from me yet again. I could tell that they were more than friends. They probably didn't even realize it yet, just like me and Percy didn't realize how much we loved each other until... Until we were pulled apart. Gods. ..

I still didn't know how he had survived the ambrosia. We had always been told at Camp that we could only eat a little bit of ambrosia, and only drink a small amount of nectar at a time, or we would literally burn up. And Chiron had always said that if mortals, or even animals took the tiniest taste of the godly food and drink, their molecules would literally catch on fire, and they'd be a pile of ashes in thirty seconds flat.

So how was he still alive?! It just didn't make any sense. He was obviously not a demigod. Satyrs can tell if people are demigods just by smelling them. Coach Hedge sniffed an uncomfortable Fang up and down, and pronounced him 100% mortal. Well, except for the 2% avian DNA part.

Even with all of the questions swirling around in my brain, I managed to fall asleep pretty quickly.

The next morning, I went to change Fang's bandages. The blood had stopped flowing, and the wound had started scabbing over because of the ambrosia. That was good. Now I just had to make sure it didn't get infected. I wished Will was here. He was so much better at this kind of stuff, being in Apollo's cabin and all.

I had gotten a clean set of bandages, and was about to wrap him up again, when something caught my eye. A golden sparkle, in the dried blood. That couldn't be healthy at all. If his skin healed over that piece of glitter, or whatever it was, that wouldn't be good for him at all.

"You've got a piece of glitter in your wound," I told him.

"I do?" he grunted.

"Yeah, I'm going to get the tweezers and get it out. It should only take a second or two."

I sterilized the tweezers in a bottle of alcohol, and got out a magnifying glass. I peered closer at the wound, and was about to pick out the piece of glitter, when I saw another one. What the heck?

I looked around the wound with the magnifying glass, and nearly dropped it. I jerked back. His wound had at least a dozen pieces of glitter in it.

"Um Fang..." I said nervously.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Your wound has at least a dozen pieces of glitter in it,"

"What the heck?!"

"I don't know either," I muttered. But then, I realized I DID know.

Ambrosia... Demigods...Golden... Blood...Gods... ICHOR!

I gasped, and almost fell down.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Umm... Fang... That glitter I mentioned... It's not glitter... You have Ichor in your bloodstream!"

"Ichor? Wasn't that like, god blood?"

"Yeah... Don't ask me. That must be how you survived the ambrosia. You have enough Ichor in you to handle it."

I decided everyone needed to know about this, pronto. I decided the quickest way to do that was to use the bedside intercom.

I pressed down the button, and said, "Everyone, come to Room A, I've discovered why Fang can have ambrosia!"

A couple minutes later, the rest of the bird-kids burst into the room. Percy and Jason were next, followed closely by Piper, Hazel, and Leo. Frank finally showed up.

"Alright, spill it!" said Max loudly.

"Alright, this might be a bit of a shock to you, but Fang has Ichor in his bloodstream," I said.

"Ichor?" asked Max.

"Wasn't that the immortal blood of gods and titans and stuff?" asked Iggy.

"Uh huh..." I said, nodding.

Everyone's mouth dropped open.

"Let me see, NOW!" said Max. "I've seen him bleed before. There was no golden blood!"

"This is more like glitter,"

"There wasn't any glitter either!" cried Max.

She pushed me out of the way, and peeled back Fang's bandage.

"How in the blazes?!" she cried, "It's true,"

"OMG, Fang you're immortal now!" cried Nudge, bouncing up and down excitedly.

"Umm... I don't think so sweetie. He doesn't have nearly enough in his bloodstream to be considered immortal. He might live, I don't know, five, ten years longer?

"Aww... Oh well... I would've missed you guys anyways," said Fang, wincing.

"OOH! Was that some emotions? Did Fang just have emotions?" teased Gazzy, who received a punch from Iggy. "Ow!" he cried, rubbing his arm where Iggy had hit him.

Fang rolled his eyes, and said, "Well, does this mean I can have more ambrosia? Because it made me feel like, a million times better.

"I have an idea!" cried Nudge. "If we give it to him, a chunk at a time, every ten minutes, then we can stop if he starts getting hotter,"

Fang rolled his eyes, and said, "I don't think that's going to work Nudge."

"Actually, it's a decent idea," I said. I liked this Nudge. She seemed pretty smart sometimes.

"It's worth a go..." said Fang.

"But..." I said, "An overdose happens all at once. You can't tell when you're overdosing, till you swallow one more crumb, and then you burst into flames."

"Oh... that sucks..." muttered Nudge.

"So, you're going to have to stay in bed at least two weeks.

"Six days..." muttered Max. Was she arguing with me?!

"Six days!?" I cried. "He won't even have enough strength to stand up in six days! Much less walk around!"

"Six days, because we heal about twice as fast as regular humans," she said frowning.

"You WHAT?!" I cried.

"We heal extremely fast."

"Okay..." I muttered. That was crazy! They could fly, AND they were super strong, AND they healed twice as fast as regular humans. Totally unfair! I needed to stop being jealous of them though. They had been through a lot...

Suddenly, the ship gave a vibration, and I felt the oars start pumping.

"All hands on deck!" cried Leo frantically. He sounded like he was panicking.

I threw a metal breastplate over my PJs, and rushed up the stairs with the rest of the demigods, all in an odd assortment of PJs and armor. For some reason, Percy was wearing superman boxers, and that was it. Literally. He raced up the stairs ahead of me, flipping Riptide open as he went. Oh well. Leo was in trouble.

 **Percy:**

I felt like an idiot, running to save the day wearing only an old pair of superman boxers. I drew Riptide as I took the stairs two at a time.

I heard Annabeth huffing and puffing behind me. She still had asthma from our time down...there. For some reason, my asthma had completely disappeared when they gave me the avian DNA. Who knows...

I could see the deck now, but I still couldn't see Jason, Coach Hedge, or Leo.

I peered through the railing, the deck at eye level, standing on the third step down. That's when I saw them. They were bound to the main mast, with gags shoved in their mouths. Three Erasers, armed with machine guns stood around them, grinning devilishly.

Annabeth crept up behind me, wearing a metal breastplate. Now I wished I had thought to bring armor. I motioned for everyone to be quiet when they went up the stairs. Soon, we were all there, and I quietly told everyone the situation.

"Machine Guns?!" yelped Iggy, then his eyes widened in horror, and he clapped his hand over his mouth.

"Oops..." he muttered.

I heard thumps as the Erasers approached.

The big burly one looked down at us and I gasped. It was the one from yesterday, that Max had killed. She had called him... Ari?


	5. The Return of the Wolf-Man

Thanks for all the support guys! Ari is back from the dead... DUH...DUH...DAAAAHHHH! Time for an epic battle! I have two words for you... Brace yourself.

 **Max:**

I gasped. Ari?! How?! I had snapped his neck. He had died. Definitely died. I had even checked for a pulse, and he didn't have one. Had they like, fixed his neck, and used defibrillators to get his heart pumping again?

"Well, well, well, look what we have here..." said Ari, grinning wolfishly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Leo burn right through his chains. He started to creep up behind Ari, carrying Coach Hedge's club. I had to stall, so he could get a good hit on him.

"How are you alive?" I asked Ari.

"I'm harder to kill than you think, Max," he said, clearly avoiding my question.

But that little conversation was enough time for Leo to sneak up on the Erasers. He raised the club above his head, but before he could swing, Ari chuckled, and backhanded Leo so hard he flew across the deck and crashed into the railings on the sides of the ship. He collapsed to the ground in a heap, his leg splayed awkwardly and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Two pearly white teeth lay on the deck by the Eraser. Ouch...

I took the opportunity while the wolf-man was distracted, and launched myself over the stairwell railing, and kicked him in the face. He staggered back, stunned, and I grabbed the machine gun from his hands, and managed to kick the others in the chests before hopping safely away, bullets raining into the deck behind me. I swerved to the left, to the right, into a roll, swing around the main mast, aim... Fire! I took out one of the Erasers with a hail of bullets. Ari just laughed, and swiped the machine gun off of his fallen comrade. He released a spray of deadly metal at me, and I barely got out of the way in time. One of the bullets nicked my ankle, and I shrieked. My ankle was on fire. I staggered, and succeeded in dropping the machine gun, (which Ari picked up and tossed over the side), and just regained my balance in time to dodge another round of bullets.

I was wearing out quickly. My breath came in ragged gasps, and my ankle hurt like heck.

"Hey! Over here flea-faces!" cried Percy, waving his sword at the Erasers. They ignored him, and one of them raised his gun and aimed at my head. I dropped to the ground in a roll as a volley of bullets flew over my head, and imbedded themselves in the main mast, right above Jason's head.

"Holy Hera!" cried Jason, flinching, and looking up at the new holes in the wood, carved inches from his head. When I came out of the roll, I screamed in pain as my previously broken ankle broke all over again. Shoot! This was not good at all. I had hoped to keep dodging until they were out of bullets, but they still had at least a dozen or so each.

I fell to the floor in a heap, my ankle throbbing. I looked up defiantly at the Erasers, walking calmly towards me like they had all the time in the world, because they did. With Fang subdued, the only ones that could challenge them were the demigods. And sword versus machine gun? I doubted that would end well.

I tried to crawl out of the way, but it was no use. My ankle was far to painful to do anything but pull myself around on the slick deck. This was it I guess. I had enough time to write my own obituary:

Max died today, because she broke her ankle and pathetically wriggled around on the floor like a dying worm, until she was put out of her misery with some machine guns... Sigh... I had planned on going out in a flaming inferno of death. But I had only managed to kill one of the dumb Erasers. Now, the rest of the flock would have to fight the remaining two.

 _Even though I'm going to die today, at least let my flock be safe!,_ I prayed.

 ** _You are not going to die today_** , the Voice interrupted me.

 **Max! Catch!** shouted Angel in my mind.

Something came whistling over the stairwell railing, and into my lap. It was a watch, with a small button on the wristband. I decided I better press it. The Erasers looked at each other, and pulled the triggers on their machine guns, just as I pushed down the little button.

Suddenly, with a whoosh of air, the sun was blocked out. In fact, all I could see was a bronze plated circle above my head, blocking out the sun, everything. Then, massive jolts hit my arm that was holding the spherical bronze shield, and the metal dented everywhere. I heard Eraser yelps, and I lowered the badly damaged shield to see one Eraser dead on the ground with a bullet through his head, and Ari, clutching his bleeding gut.

"You'll pay for this!" he growled, and leapt over the side of the flying ship. I expected him to plummet to his death, but instead, crumpled, ugly, and slightly furry wings sprung from tears in his shirt, and he clumsily flapped into the distance.

Percy walked over, and helped me sit up against the railing, while Annabeth freed the indignant Coach Hedge and Jason. Piper took one look at my ankle, with the cut, and the bad break, and said, "It's not broken, thankfully,"

"It's not broken?!" I cried, astonished.

"Nope. Just dislocated. Hey Iggy, come over here!"

Iggy obliged, following her voice.

"Have you ever had a dislocated bone set?" Piper asked me.

"No..."

"Okay. Well, we're going to set your bone back in place. It might hurt a little."

Iggy took hold of one side of my ankle, and Piper took the other.

"Okay, hold still Max," said Iggy.

"Okay! Just fix it already!" I cried.

"Okay, Iggy, on the count of three. 1...2...3..."

Both of them swiftly pulled my ankle to the right, and I screamed in agony. It felt like my tendons were being sawed in half, one by one. I heard a loud pop, which must have been my ankle going back into place.

"AGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" I screeched, lashing out at them with my arms, and my other leg.

They had jumped back, obviously ready for this response, and were already well out of the reach of my arms.

The pain subsided to a dull roar, and then to a small throbbing pain in the back of my ankle, which I realized was where the bullet had grazed it.

I glared accusingly at Piper, and said, "You said it would hurt a LITTLE!"

"Sorry..." she said, grinning.

"Hey, would you rather her have said, ' _This is going to hurt like heck'_?"chided Iggy.

"Oh enough of your rationalizing Iggy!" I said with a grunt, and hauled myself to my feet.

I stumbled, and Percy grabbed my arm.

"Whoa there, slow down. You're still in no condition to be walking."

"I'll be fine, thanks," I retorted sharply, and yanked my arm away from him. He glared at me, his eyes saying, "No you won't be fine."

I grumpily sat back down. Finally, I gained the strength to walk again. I wobbled down the stairs, and headed straight for Room A, where they had put Fang.

"Hey Max..." he croaked, but he was already sounding better than earlier.

"Hey..." I said quietly.

He glanced down at my bloody ankle, and nodded towards it.

"What happened up there?" he said, and coughed.

"Well, Ari came back from the dead, with two friends, and they all had machine guns. The only reason I'm alive is because Percy tossed me his wristwatch shield. I feel bad though. Remember? It was the shield that his half-brother Tyson had made for him... It's completely ruined now. That one picture of them fighting that cyclops in the sea of monsters? Well, the cyclops now has a big hole for an eye."

Fang chuckled hoarsely, and coughed, "Glass of water?"

I brought him the cup on his bedside table. It was one of the glasses from Camp Half-Blood, so it filled with whatever you asked it to.

Fang took it, and gulped it down in two swigs.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, and we sat in silence. Don't ask me why. I have no clue.

We had sat and thought for a long time, when finally, the ship landed with a thump.

"Welcome to Florida, Land of the UMMMMMMM, well whatever! Just get off your lazy bums and come up here. Fang and Max are exempt of course!" bellowed Leo over the intercom.

I was exempt, because of a sore ankle, with a little cut on it?! Oh NO WAY was I, MAXIMUM RIDE, going to put up with THAT!

"Excuse me, I've got to go," I told Fang.

He just chuckled, and rolled his eyes at me.

I stormed up the stairs, not caring about the pain throbbing through my ankle every step, and onto the deck. The others were standing in a circle, talking.

"Max! Why are you up?! You just had a dislocated ankle! You are in no fit shape to be going questing!" cried Annabeth.

"I get to say when I go questing, because I'M the LEADER here, not YOU!" I fumed.

Annabeth started to retort, but Percy grabbed her arm, and whispered something to her, and she held her tongue.

That was probably good, because I didn't like people who talked back to me. That Annabeth girl got on my last nerves sometimes. Although I could say the exact same thing about all of my flock-mates. Haha...


	6. Percy is SUCH a Seaweed Brain

Hey everyone! Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out! I got extremely enthusiastic about writing on my other book. :) Ideas are getting harder to come by for this book. I've got a serious case of writer's block, lol! Well, thanks for following Chrisanne1228 and domino02, and Enjoy!

 **Percy:**

"So, Festus found the headquarters for Itex in America," said Leo. "That's the good news... The bad news is..." He broke off, looking uncomfortable,

"What?!" asked Max impatiently.

"It's in Florida, and we just received a call from camp. Chiron said that he got a distress call from somewhere in Utah. It was from Clarisse. She's on a quest to rescue some demigods or something."

"Great... More delays..." muttered Max darkly.

"Hey! These are demigods we're talking about!" Annabeth scolded her.

"Annabeth's right," I said. "We need to help."

"Fine..." muttered Max, sighing heavily. "But can we make it quick?"

"Yeah. I'll put the ship on full speed to Utah."

Leo rushed off to the engine room, muttering strings of numbers that made no sense to me.

"Well, at least Fang will be able to help us at the Itex headquarters now..." said Max.

"I still don' think he'll be healed enough yet..." muttered Annabeth.

Then a croaky voice from the stairwell startled all of us, "I'll be fine."

Fang hobbled into view, looking worse for wear. His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was scratchy. He took huge, rattling breaths, but he didn't look like he was in too much pain. I couldn't believe it! It had only been two and a half days since he got shot! And he was upright and walking!

"Fang!" cried Annabeth. Max just smirked at her like, 'I told you so'.

"That's my man!" cried Iggy putting his hand up for a high five. Fang slapped it weakly, and slumped down against the main mast.

I felt the breeze rustle through the sails, and the aerial oars working hard to turn the massive ship around. Off to Utah we go... I sighed. Did it HAVE to be Clarisse who was in trouble? Knowing her, she wouldn't even be grateful when we rescued her sorry butt. But that's Clarisse for you...

"I'm going to go stretch out my..umm.. wings... okay?" I announced.

Annabeth still looked uncomfortable when I mentioned my extra appendages. I just hoped she didn't judge me for them.

I hopped over the rail, and let myself fall into the open air. I twisted, gaining momentum, and whipped out my wings, catching the wind. I whooped, and did a loop-de-loop. Flying was the best!

 **Annabeth:**

My heart still skipped a beat when Percy leapt over the railing, and fell into empty air. I couldn't help but sigh with relief, when his wings emerged from his orange shirt, and caught the wind. They caught the sunlight, sleek and glossy, and powerful as well. I could feel the wind from them, as my crazy boyfriend whooped, and did loop-de-loops over my head.

Percy flew over me like a bullet from a gun, and I was suddenly swooped up into the sky, nothing but his strong arms between me and certain death. The wind whipped through my hair, and the wind stung my eyes, but I didn't care. I screeched as Percy pulled into a sharp dive, heading straight at the ground. At the very last second, he pulled up, leaving my stomach far behind us. I beat my fists on his chest, and demanded to be put down, but he just chuckled, and flew deftly through gaps in between skyscrapers, probably scaring the Hades out of mortals looking out their office windows, did a few loop-de-loops for good measure, and set me down gently on the deck of the Argo II.

"You are crazy!" I decided, as soon as my feet were on solid ground, or flying ship in this case.

"You tell me that a lot," he said, still chuckling. I gave him a shove, but he just pulled me in, like a fish on a line, and we were suddenly pressing up against each other, eyes locked together, and the scent of an ocean breeze filled my senses.

"seaweed brain..." I whispered softly. "wise girl," he replied, and I kissed the idiot that thought that scaring his girlfriend half to death was romantic. His soft wings wrapped around me like a blanket, and I let myself melt away into his arms. We could have just stayed there forever, his back pressed against the main mast, his wings enveloping us as we just held each other, savoring this moment.

But, of course, Coach Hedge had to come on deck, and ruin everything.

"You little cupcakes get your lips peeled apart or I'll peel them apart for you!"

We jumped apart, startled, and Coach Hedge continued, "CHASE, I EXPECT BETTER FROM YOU! AND JACKSON, JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE WINGS DOESN'T MEAN YOU GET TO MAKE OUT! Why, I didn't kiss a girl till I was a hundred and four!"

Percy snickered and said, "Coach, that's because you never had a girlfriend until you were 104..."

"IRRELAVENT!" bellowed the indignant satyr, who proceeded to pick me up, and carry me down the stairs and lock me into my room. A few minutes later, I heard Percy cursing, and a lot of banging noises, and a door be slammed and locked. I giggled to myself. Always expect Percy to put up a fight. That seaweed brain...


	7. Truuussst Meeee

Hi! Thanks for the nice PM kelphead2, also, thanks for following, fandomsforever2003, and DigitalIceBlock. Sorry If I forgot to thank anyone for supporting, it's hard to keep up! :P Enjoy!

 **Clarisse:**

I had never really liked them anyways, but I couldn't stop praying that they would be too busy to come. Never thought I'd wish problems on a group of demigods, but it was either problems, or a deadly trap that I knew even they couldn't escape.

I tried to get comfortable, which was an overstatement, because I was standing up, my hands tied tightly with chains to the ceiling. The scientists, whitecoats as Max had called them, were walking around me, poking and prodding me with pointy objects. Did I mention I had no clothes on? Yeah. In a room full of grown men... I growled angrily at the mortals that dare kidnap me, and invade my privacy.

Finally, they released me from my chains, and tossed me a white and gray outfit. I slipped it on. That was much better...

But I spoke too soon. The wol...Erasers came into the room, three of them, and dragged me off down the hallway. Liquid fear dripped into my heart. After hearing the winged mortal talk about the torture they went through, I was in no hurry to try it out for myself. But of course, the Eraser's didn't care what I thought.

I was thrown to the floor in a room with a lounge chair wires and machinery surrounding it, a female whitecoat, and two more Erasers. They grabbed me, and forced me to lay back in the chair. The lady picked up a bowl shaped thing with loads of wires, and came at me with it. She tried to put it on my head, but I yelled in defiance. No way was I, daughter of Ares, going to let them stick that thing on my head so it could do gods know what to my brain.

I delivered what I thought was a good solid punch to one Eraser's snout, but my fist bounced off harmlessly, leaving my knuckles sore. How the heck?! I jumped on the other Eraser, and tried to wrestle him to the ground. I managed to, but then the other one proceeded to lift me off of him by my collar... He picked up all 150 pounds of me like I was only a feather. I choked and squirmed, and he laughed. My face was starting to turn red, but I managed to wriggle out of the shirt, and kick the Eraser where it hurts. Of course, now my stomach and back were exposed to their claws and teeth. Brilliant move on my part...Ugh...

Immediately, the Eraser saw the weakness, and slashed his claw down my back while I was trying to strangle the other one. I screamed, blood trickling from the scrape, and kicked him in the stomach, leaving him winded. I returned strangling the other one. Which is why I didn't see the one I had kicked lunging for me with a shock collar. Snap! went the shock collar around my neck, closing a flap of skin. I screamed in pain, and yanked my mangled skin from where the collar had snapped on it. I tried to pull the collar off, but it had already fastened itself, and it refused to budge.

And that's when I received the worst shock of my life. Like ever. Nothing had ever been so painful in my demigod career. I nearly blacked out from shock. I heard someone screaming like a banshee, then realized it was me. A rancid smell hit my nostrils. Burning flesh. Once, when someone stole my electric spear, and turned it on me, I had gotten shocked pretty bad. It had been enough to give me a burn mark, and make my legs turn to jelly, and my brain to mashed potatoes. This was three times worse.

And the Max girl endured this for 11 years of her life. How in Hades was she still sane?

My legs slipped out from underneath me, and I tumbled to the floor. My brain was barely processing what I saw anymore, but I remembered being tossed mercilessly into the chair, and the thing shoved onto my limp head. They attached a few electrodes here and there on my arms and legs, and I heard the crazy lady mutter stuff to herself.

And then she pressed a button on a control panel, and I was no longer in the chair. Or the room. Or even the testing facility. I was back at camp Half-Blood. I saw Percy, raised on a shield, people cheering. Even my loyal followers. One of my fellow cabin-mates pushed roughly past me, almost knocking me to the ground.

"Hey!" I grunted, but I was ignored. The scene switched, and I saw Percy stealing all the glory, over and over again. My life was completely out-shadowed by the new boy. Even the quest that was supposed to be mine, had to be saved by the annoying "twice savior" and his know-it-all girlfriend.

The image changed, and I was at Manhattan, refighting the Titan war. I saw Silena in my armor, leading my cabin in an onslaught against the Drakon. I saw her fall, poison melting her armor, and I screamed in rage. I charged the Drakon, stabbing my spear straight through its opened mouth. The spear pierced it's brain, and continued out the backside of its head. I raced over to my fallen friend, but she vanished, and the scene was replaced by Chris, muttering about string, and a son of Poseidon. Then, my father Ares, screaming at me about how I had failed him. But unlike what most people I knew believed, failure wasn't my biggest fear.

It was the last one that was most terrifying to me: the murderous gleam in my cabin-mates' eyes as they charged at me, weapons drawn. Betrayal. I froze in shock as my own family ripped my armor, and then me, into little pieces. All I felt was pain... pain... so much pain...

I was awake, I could tell, but my eyes refused to open. I was limp, so I couldn't even move my fingers. And my body was on fire, millions of needles pushing their way through my skin. I opened my mouth and let out a scream of pure agony, but no sound came out. My skin was being stretched, and I heard things popping and cracking. The pain, the pain was intolerable. Suddenly, my teeth started throbbing, and then pain flared through my gums. My teeth felt like they were all being torn out at once. I tasted blood in my mouth, and felt something pointy pressing against the wall of my mouth. Two somethings actually.

Finally, the pain ended, and the pointy objects in my mouth went away. I opened my eyes, which were itchy as heck, and rubbed my nose, which had started to run.

My throat was full of mucus, and I coughed loudly. Gods, did I have a cold on top of everything else? No, not a cold. My forehead was fine. Allergies? But what from?

I wasn't restrained, or in a cage at all. I wondered why...

 ** _Because I am loyal to the whitecoats, obviously!_**

What the heck? Where were those thoughts coming from? It was like someone had taken control of my mind and inserted those thoughts. And worse, I kind of believed them.

 _Stop it! I am NOT loyal to the whitecoats! URGH!_

 ** _But you are...you are loyal..._**

 _Loyal my butt! I will never listen to you! Are you an eidolon?!_

 ** _No, I am you, and you are me... You never like the other demigods anyways... They will all betray you eventually... The only ones that will stay by you are the whitecoats... Truuuussssst meee..._**

Trust the creepy voice inside of my head? Why should I trust it?

 ** _Truuussst ittttt..._**

 _Trust you?..._

 ** _Truuuussssst meee..._**

 _Truuusst yoou?_

 ** _TRUUUUUSSSST MEEEEE!_**

 _I Truussssstttt youuuu..._

 ** _Gooooooooddd..._**

 _Gooooood..._


	8. Ambushed

I'm sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out. I know, I know, I'm making excuses for playing instead of writing. But if you would give me feedback maybe! Seriously, it really lights the fire under my butt. Give me zuhm veedbach here! Vevew! Alzo, _I vill now destroy de_ Snickuhs bahrs! Mwhahahahaha! Thanks for following and favoriting, everyone who did. And seriously, review plz! I live on reviews, and this story really needs some suggestions. Last but not least, if you asked a question in your review, (matt I'm talking to you) and you don't have an account or you are private, I can't message you the answer, so I answer via review! Fang is NOT a demigod, just to clarify. In the book FANG, they find out that Fang has immortal DNA, meaning his children will be immortal. I just squeezed that into the book by giving him traces of Ichor. Not even demigods have traces of Ichor! :P Now do u understand? Anyvais, enjoi dis next chapter! Forgive me if my ter Borcht impression is awful. ;P

 **Roland ter Borcht:**

Roland sighed loudly. Could nothing ever work the way it was supposed to? At least the experiment on Subject C13 went as planned. And they had gotten an 'Iris message' through to their silly camp leader, a part man, part horse. Ter Borcht hoped he could get his hands on this creature, and find out how it worked.

He grinned to himself, and chuckled. The trap was set. Soon they would have all of the greatest demigods and the 'bird-kids' in their hands. All theirs to experiment on! Subject B6 was extremely interesting, and the Director had told him that he may bring it back to their headquarters in Germany and run more blood tests on it. They needed to know if the subject would survive before they inserted avian DNA into any more of the 'half-bloods'

And then, they could get rid of the pesky 'flock'. Exterminate every single one of the feathered failures. Ter Borcht knew just how to do it. But it would take a long time to build. From the very beginning, he called it... Project Omega...

 **Ari:**

Ari regretted his decision to attack the flock while they were allied with those stupid 'demigods'. Max had already killed him once, and Jeb had to shock him back to life, and then he went after them again? STUPID STUPID STUPID!

He hated Max with every molecule of his being. She needed to die. Now. He would have to play along with the whitecoats plans.

 ** _Yeeesssss... Thaaaaat's riiiiight... Yoooou aaaare looooyaal tooo thhee whhiiitecooaaats..._**

 _SHUT UP! I know I'm loyal to the whitecoats! would prefer to keep my own brains okay? Thanks!_

 ** _Juuust reemiiinding yooou..._**

 _GO AWAY!_

Ari hated that tiny voice in his head that brainwashed him every time he had rebellious thoughts. He had learned his lesson anyways. Anything, even siding with filthy whitecoats, was better than seeing Max alive and healthy, while he was a wretched mess. He would tear those snotty bird-kids to little pieces, and force feed them to that stupid talking dog. Yeah. That sounded good to him.

 **Leo:**

As the sun rose over the horizon, we finally arrived in Utah. I whizzed my nun-chuck around the Wii remote, and the anchor finally hit ground with a satisfying _Clunk!_ Good. Now that we were anchored, I should call the others up to the deck.

I pressed the button, and shrieked over the intercom, "ALL HANDS ON DECK! AND I BETTER NOT SEE ANY DEMIGODS IN PJS WHEN I GET UP THERE!"

So, naturally, every single member of the 'flock' was in PJs. Rule avoiders... I should throw them over the side and see how long it takes Festus to fetch them. Oh wait, they can fly. Nothing ever goes my way! UGH!

"Welcome to Utah, my feathery friends!" I announced. Max rolled her eyes at me. I chuckled and continued talking, "So, Clarisse is about fifteen miles away from here. I figured we should abandon ship, and sneak there, because we are in nowhere-land, and apparently, whitecoats have learned to see through the mist. Our ship is no longer safe. Which pretty much sucks..."

"Agreed," said Percy.

"So, anyways, I'll lead the way. Let's go!" I ran over to Festus who was dutifully waiting by the railing, and my awesome metal dragon leapt over the edge, and soared between the thin trees.

 **Annabeth:**

"Want to fly again?" Percy asked me. My eyes lit up, and I nodded rapidly. He gave me that mischievous grin, and his sea-green eyes sparkled. He swept me up, and leapt over the rail. For a terrifying second, he didn't unfold his wings. Then the massive black primaries emerged from his orange shirt, and caught the wind. We leveled out, gliding peacefully forward while he unfolded his wings. I was still awed at how massive they were. How in Hades did they fit in his shirt?

"How DO they fit in your shirt?" I asked him.

"Your guess is as good as mine. Max says they fold up behind our shoulder blades."

He tipped his left wing into an air current, quickly tucking his wings around us as we spiraled crazily. He dropped out of the air current when Leo and Festus went into the sparse trees. We swooped in and out of the branches, and the wind whipped through my hair.

Finally, Leo beckoned for us to land. He landed with a _clunk._ Percy, and the rest of the flock landed soundlessly, on the other hand. Hazel raced in on Arion, who didn't look even slightly winded. Frank the hawk landed quietly, and morphed back into human Frank. Jason soared up with Piper.

"Can I have a ride sometime?" Leo asked Percy. Percy snorted, "Sure fire-boy"

Leo looked startled then stuttered, "Never mind I was only kidding!"

Everyone laughed, except for Max and Fang.

"Shh!" she hissed.

"What is it?" I whispered.

Percy suddenly looked on guard as well. He pulled out Riptide, but didn't uncap it yet. We crept through the woods.

I didn't hear anything, but Percy, and the other bird-kids were jerking their heads in random directions like they were hearing things...

"Percy, what is it?!" I hissed. "I don't know. You can't hear that though. It sounds like an entire cohort of Romans is trying to tiptoe through the leaves and failing miserably!"

"I don't hear a thing!" I said, my eyes widening.

 **Max:**

Percy looked at me for an explanation. "Bird senses..." I whispered . "We can see farther, hear better..."

"Lucky!" said Frank.

"Frank, you can just turn into a hawk anytime..." Percy muttered

"Oh... right..." he said embarrassedly.

"And a dragon...And a lion...And an elephant...Oh, and did I mention a dragon?" muttered Leo under his breath.

"Shut it Valdez," scowled Frank.

And that's when I realized my stupid mistake. While we had been talking, I had led us straight into a trap...


	9. Flyboys and Traitors

Hey everyone! Thank you Kelphead2, for the funny comment. It made me laugh. "Oh the horror! A cliffhanger! Whatever shall I do?!" Haha. Anyways, no more cliffhanger. You are relieved of your worries! Enjoy! Also, remember to check out my other stories! I just posted a brand new one, a Lord of the Rings/Maximum Ride one, called _Fellowship of the Flock_ , and a Lord of the Rings/Hungergames one called _Elves, Dwarves, and Tributes, Oh My!_ The Lord of the Rings/Hungergames one is harder to do, so don't expect a very fast update, and I'll probably only do two or three chapters. Also, if you have read Wings of Fire, check out my _Percy Jackson and the Scavengers of Pyrrhia_! Oh, and a very recent edition, if you have read Lord of the Rings or watched the movie, check out my _Strange Things From Beyond_ to find out what happens when bubble wrap is teleported to middle earth, along with some other modern objects! Tons of laughs! Anyways, sorry it's taking so long for these chapters to come out. I really am losing my fervor for writing on this story! I need suggestions! And reviews! Reviews keep me moving at high speed! REVIEW EVERY CHAPTER OR I MIGHT JUST QUIT THIS STORY! THERE! I SAID IT! QUIT! akksgalj hsdgjl! (angry keyboard smash) LOL NVM... . Just... Enjoy...

PS: I'm writing this with a freaking popped blister on my hand that hurts like Hades. OWWWW! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TYPE WITH THIS MORTAL WOUND?! YOU SEE WHAT I GO THROUGH FOR YOU GUYS?! DEDICATION MAN!

 **Max:**

Yeah, you heard me last chapter. We were trapped. Because Erasers by the dozens started pouring from the trees, their wacky, and unwieldy wings stirring up leaves and dirt. I pressed closer to my flock and the demigods. After seeing what the demigods could do in a tiny room with no maneuverability whatsoever though, I wasn't really scared we were going to lose.

Until the flow of Erasers didn't stop... And then a new critter cooked up by the white-coats emerged. Well, more like, a dozen of them emerged. They looked almost like the flying Erasers, but flew steadier, and their skin was very stiff and stretched out over their frame.

Then I saw the glowing red eyes, and the guns that were glued, or...welded to their arms. Because they were robots, covered in Eraser skin. Gross...

"What should we call the robot Erasers?" asked Leo.

"Robot Erasers?" asked Iggy, desperately trying to see this new abomination.

"Yeah, they look like Eraser skin stretched over a robot frame, and they have guns... several have machine guns actually..."

"Great..." muttered Iggy. "U and A!" I screamed, as the first Eraser launched itself at me. Unfortunately, no-one but my flock-mates knew what that meant.

The girl named Hazel immediately got shot in the head. Okay, I know what you are thinking. MAX! HOW COULD YOU JUST ANNOUNCE SOMEONE'S DEATH SO CASUALLY?! YOU FREAK!

I never said she freaking died yet! Shut up! Anyway, Hazel immediately got shot in the head and...

WHO SAID THAT?! I HEARD THAT! YOU BACK THERE! YEAH, YOU IN THE BLUE SHIRT WHO JUST SAID THAT MINERAKF CAN'T KILL HAZEL! MINERAKF IS THE AUTHOR OF THIS FREAKING STORY, SHE CAN DO WHATEVER SHE WANTS!...Oh wait... That means...gulp...she could kill me off!

 _Minerakf: *laughs maliciously*_

 _Max: *sighs* Can I just get on with the story?_

 _Minerakf: As you wish..._

Any-freaking-how, Hazel got shot in the head, AND the bullet clanged off of her Calvary helmet, causing a resounding boom that echoed through the dense trees.

"OWWW! MY EARS!" she cried, clutching her head in pain. Unfortunately, while I was distracted, an Eraser punched me in the side. I doubled over in pain, the air knocked out of me. Normally, that wouldn't happen, but this was from one of the robot Erasers, which had freaking metal fists. Ouch...

I growled in rage, and punched the robot Eraser in the snout. The metal behind the snout crumpled, leaving a very strange looking, caved in Eraser face, and one very sore fist. Note to self: get baseball bat if you make it out of this alive.

I instead swiped a gun off of a regular Eraser that Fang had taken down, and started bashing heads with it. Why didn't I shoot it? Well, I kind of had this rule about firearms.

Leo apparently didn't though. The psychopath kid hooked up two machine guns to his bronze dragon, and went nuts. He was grinning wildly like he was just riding a roller-coaster, not mowing down extremely dangerous wolf-hybrids with EXTREMELY DANGEROUS MACHINE GUNS!

I sighed, and returned to kicking my robot Eraser. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a robot Eraser going for Iggy.

"Iggy, robot Eraser at twelve o'clock!" I screamed, just as the mutant opened fire. I dove, but I already knew it was too late.

You know how people say, time slows down when you are about to die? Well, I for one, can guarantee you that they're right. Time seemed to slow down to a ridiculous frame rate. I saw the bullets near Iggy, as he whirled around so he would face the Eraser. He might have heard the whistle of the bullets, but I doubted it. He probably thought it was bullets fired at someone else. Gazzy was supposed to be protecting him, and I wondered where he had flown off too. Iggy probably had no idea he was about to be killed.

Because I knew he was going to be killed. Five bullets were lined up perfectly for his heart. It was too late. Too late! NOT IGGY!

"NOO!"

The scream of agony ripped from my jaw. And then a sword flashed in front of Iggy's chest, and a loud series of clangs managed to pierce my scream of desperation. The bullets flew off into the trees with thuds, and Percy's sword glinted bronze in the fading sunlight. He shot me a thumbs up and was gone before I could even blink.

I gaped in astonishment at Iggy, who was still alive, and who now realized how close he had been to death. I flew quickly over, and wrapped the blind bird-kid in a big hug, just to make sure he was still there. Then I noticed Percy, whirling like a hurricane, causing mass panic among the Erasers. He sliced and diced with ease, going so fast he was a blur. I think it was partially his DNA that was letting him go so fast, and mostly his years of training as a demigod. I had a feeling that he had gone almost this fast without our enhanced stamina.

Unfortunately, his speed wouldn't save him from what I noticed approaching him. Because it was Clarisse. Yes, definitely Clarisse. But Clarisse was an Eraser.

I also noticed something else: Leo was being kidnapped by some Robot Erasers!

 _Max, Iggy said they are called Flyboys._

 _Ohhhkkay..._

 _Just letting you know!_ Angel grinned at me from across the clearing where she was making the old Erasers bash their head together repeatedly with Piper. Unfortunately, neither of the girl's mind controlling worked on the Flyboys, because they were just programming.

That's when I realized I had a choice to make. Percy, or Leo. Percy was better off than Leo, but I was worried that he wouldn't be able to kill Clarisse. Leo, on the other hand, was already kidnapped, and being flown away. He had a large bump on his forehead, and he was unconcious.

I started after the Flyboys and Leo. Which turned my back away from the battle. Which was a stupid move. Just as I caught the Flyboys and Leo, pain flared through my shoulder and right wing. It was a good thing I was flying low to the ground, because I immediately fell from the sky, landing in a prickly bush and getting scraped up considerably.

I hit the ground with enough force to still knock the air out of me. Which was the last straw for my already traumatized body. With the agonizing pain wracking my body from the gaping hole in my wing and shoulder blade, I almost welcomed the darkness. As my vision faded, I vaguely felt the warm, sticky blood pouring onto the dry ground beneath me, my life quickly slip-sliding away.

 **Percy:**

I was kicking butt, slicing through ranks of Erasers like they were soft cheese. I had received a couple of blows, but nothing major. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Max flying out of the clearing, chasing... Flyboys with a sack? Then the sack shifted, and black hair poked out of a hole in it. They had Leo!

I was about to fly after Max, but suddenly, a cold, metal point dug into my neck. Stupid Percy, you know you should never let down your guard! I braced myself for death. It never came. That's when my addled brain realized that none of the Erasers carried spears... What the heck?!

And then the person behind me spoke, their voice grating and harsh, but still recognizable, "Who's so proud and mighty now? LOSER!"

"Clarisse?!" I cried in shock, and then the traitorous daughter of Ares whacked me on the head with her spear, and I crumpled to the ground senseless.


	10. Pink and Purple Polka-Dotty

Sorry it is taking soooo long to update now, but I'm trying to work on about 6-7 stories at once, and the list just keeps growing. Like my new 'Lord of Hogwarts' one, and the 'Elves, Dwarves, and LEP-Recons' one. :) Thank you for the suggestions. None of them struck me as great in the entirety, so I'm using my favorite combinations of all of them. You guys are truly great! Thank you, everyone who gave me ideas! Oh, btw, you know how Max met her mom on the way to the school, just didn't know she was her mom? Well, I kind of forgot to write that part, so just pretend it happened, and that was why it took so long for the flock to get to the school. 0~0 also, if you really, really want to know ahead of time what DNA each demigod is given, go to the bottom lol!

 **Max:**

I gasped, and my eyes flew open. Where was I? Rocks dug into my wings, and my shoulder burned like fire. I yanked myself upright, and immediately regretted it. My vision swam, and I almost passed out again. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to remain conscious. Then I peered down at my shoulder. The bleeding still hadn't stopped, and I had lost almost a third of my blood already. I felt my shoulder and wing. Luckily, the bullet hadn't hit me as bad as last time. A pang of sadness hit me when I remembered Ella and her mom. In the chaos of the last week, I had forgotten all about them. Suddenly, I realized that I was only a few miles from where they lived! I looked around a bit for the others, but the forest was silent. I struggled to my feet, and felt my shoulder again. It hurt like heck to do it, but I extended my right wing. I sighed in relief when I found that the wing had not even been hit. It had cut more into the very top of my shoulder than anything else. A groove was cut in my shoulder, but I suspected I might be able to fly still...

I wobbled around, peering at signs of the fight, trying to see where everyone had gone. Had anyone escaped? Or were they all captured by the erasers? This wasn't good. Other than splatters of blood and a few dead Erasers and 'Flyboys', there was no evidence of any of any survival. It appeared that everyone had been kidnapped and flown away.

Except...four sets of footprints led away from the battle, and then ended abruptly. I recognized them. It was Angel, Gazzy, Iggy and Nudge. They had gotten away, and they were headed...where?

I took to the air and headed toward their house, hoping they weren't away on vacation or something.

 **Piper:**

There was only one word to describe how I felt: Ouch.

Every bone in my body ached. Every muscle was taut, and my head throbbed to my crazy fast heartbeat. I was pretty sure hearts weren't supposed to sound like that... Not to mention how itchy my skin was... I finally managed to convince myself to open my eyes. What had they done to me? Did they give me wings like Percy?!

I was staring at the bars of a cage. I pushed myself into a somewhat sitting position. That's when I saw my hands. Or, more accurately, DIDN'T see my hands. In fact, I couldn't see my entire arm... In fact, I couldn't even see my whole body. Holy Hera, I was freaking invisible. I looked down at my legs, but all I saw was the gray floor of the cage.

I waved my hand, hoping I would somehow turn back to normal. To my immense relief, I actually did... What kind of DNA did they give me?!

I looked around me. Frank was the only one in the room with me. He was still unconscious in the cage beside me, and I could understand why. He was hardly recognizable anymore. His skin was a strange color, mottled brown and green, and covered in bumps. Parts of his legs and arms looked like they had been crushed, and he was oozing sticky white stuff from sores all over his body. I looked away, trying hard not to vomit, but it came out anyways. I felt a little better after being sick all over the floor outside my cage, and smiled a little when I imagined the Erasers having to clean up the mess. Those jerks...they had mutilated my friend. I would mutilate them!

Suddenly, Frank gasped, and jumped to his feet, banging his head on the top of the cage and falling back down with a curse.

He looked at his half floppy arms and the white gunk oozing from his pores, and frowned.

"They gave me sea cucumber DNA..." he muttered incredulously. I stared at him, and then he started laughing his head off.

"Why are you laughing Frank, they've mutilated you!" I cried in shock, and Frank snorted, "No they haven't. You've forgotten that I can shape-shift!"

And with that, the bumpy brownish skin smoothed out, and two seconds later, normal Frank was sitting in his cage with a wild grin on his face.

"Take that, whitecoat idiots!" he yelled. "Well, I'm glad they actually gave me useful DNA..." Piper muttered.

"What? You look perfectly normal..." Frank said, peering at me curiously.

I grinned, and imagined myself blending with the cage. Frank shrieked, and leapt forward, "PIPER!"

"I'm right here!" I giggled, wondering just how much I could do. Could I do other things, not just blend? I was glad my clothes changed with my skin, otherwise I would only be invisible in my birthday suit...

I imagined myself being pink and purple polka-dotted. Frank stared, and a grin slowly covered his face.

"That's epic! Wait until Percy finds out about this! He'll be so jealous!

I suddenly had an idea. I could be anyone. Anyone, including a Eraser...

"Frank, we're getting out of here!" I hissed quietly, hoping there were no video cameras in here that could pick me up.

"How?" he hissed, and I grinned.

"Easy. You become an octopus."

"What?" Frank snorted, "How the heck is me becoming an octopus going to get you out of your cage?"

"Oh, that's easy...You haven't seen the videos of lock-picking Octopuses..."

Suddenly, a voice mumbled, "Octopi," from the cage on the other side of me. This cage was a solid box with airholes and a padlock made out of a weird material...The same as the door Percy couldn't cut with Riptide... Oh...

"Percy?" I cried happily, but there was only silence. Then I realized that the air conditioning I had heard earlier was not air conditioning, but Percy snoring. I rolled my eyes at Frank, "Does he typically correct people in his sleep?"

"Yep..." Frank said solemnly, and I laughed. Then I became serious again, thinking about the others. Where was Annabeth? Jason? Leo?! We sat in silence, worrying about our friends for a long time. I started to fall asleep I think...

The door burst open suddenly, and an unconscious Jason was dragged in. I gasped. Jason's now coppery tinted skin glinted and reflected the light, and I could vaguely make out the shapes of scales. His head lolled to the side and his mouth opened for a brief second. Enough for me to make out the deadly fangs dripping with venom...

They had turned Jason into a snake...


	11. I Don't Even Like Snakes

**Percy:**

"Percy!" Annabeth screamed in my dream, clutching at thin air while poison slowly withered me away.

I sat up with a gasp, my head throbbing where Clarisse had hit me with her spear. That traitorous daughter of Ares... I barely held back a curse when I saw the interior of my cage. It was made of the stuff my sword couldn't cut. Just great... the whitecoats weren't as dumb as we originally thought...

"Percy!" came a hissed voice from outside my cage. Oh...It was Frank...

"Yeah?" I muttered groggily, slightly nauseous.

"We have an escape plan. We're just waiting for the others to be brought back before we put it into action." Frank said excitedly, and I grinned even though he couldn't see it.

"Great...What exactly is this plan? You can't really bust me out of here, you're going to need a key..."

"Nope...Octopuses..." Piper started.

"Octopi," I automatically corrected, and they groaned in harmony.

"Octopi don't need keys!" Piper finished.

"Um...why not?"

"I thought you were the sea-life expert..." Piper said, and I had a feeling she was wearing a large smirk.

I sighed, "Alright, I don't know everything..."

Piper snorted, "Alright, I've seen a video of an octopus picking a lock with just its tentacles. Frank is going to turn into an octopus, and get us out of these ridiculous cages!"

"Ridiculous doesn't cut it..." I grumbled. "Let's hope they don't take any of us out to test us...with luck, they'll starve us for a while beforehand and not jump straight to the testing. We can't afford to search the entire place and round up everyone. After all, this is where the Erasers come from.

"Gods... you spent two weeks in a cage like this right?" Piper asked. I nodded, and then realized she couldn't see me nod. "Yes."

They were silent for a while longer, and I peered through an air hole in the front of the crate, staring at the door and waiting for Annabeth to come back. If they hurt her... I was debating whether or not to tell Frank and Piper the full extent of the torture the whitecoats put me through when a struggling Fang was dragged into the room. It took four fully-morphed Erasers to restrain him, and even then, they were struggling. I switched to a hole on the side of my cage in time to see the beat up kid thrown in the cage on his right. Fang's nose was broken and bleeding and he had two black eyes. He turned around and spat blood onto the shirt of the nearest Eraser and then the Erasers left, and there was silence. A few minutes later, Jason woke up.

 **Jason:**

My mouth hurt.

Let me reword that:

My everything hurt. My skin and mouth were the worst though. I couldn't make up my mind which was causing me more agony. My mouth felt like sandpaper and there was a strange taste I just couldn't place. It wasn't bad tasting necessarily, just very not normal. It tasted sort-of like blueberries...with chocolate pudding and lime soda all at the same time. Had someone fed me while I was out? Was I on the Argo II?

I groaned and attempted to open my swollen eyelids. I was staring through a film at the bars of a cage and directly at a painfully bright fluorescent light. I blinked rapidly to clear the film from my corneas and rolled over onto my stomach. My clothing rubbed against my skin painfully and I yelped.

"Jason!" I heard Piper cry in concern and I mumbled, "I'm fine, my ssskin's jusssst a bit sssensssitive"

For some reason, I was slurring my speech horrifically. I would worry about that later. What had the whitecoats done to me?

I pushed myself into a wobbly upright position on my knees and winced as my clothing hurt my skin again. I looked down at my hands and nearly screamed.

I had scales.

Holy Hera, they had made me a snake.

"Jason, are you okay?" Piper asked as I shuddered in revulsion at my own skin. I felt her cold fingertips on my arm and I turned to look at her. She had tears in her eyes but she looked completely normal other than that. Frank was next to her completely normal as well, and on my other side, Fang was looking worse for wear. Then there was a big crate next to Fang's cage that had a door made from the same material that Riptide couldn't cut through.

"Perccccy?" I guessed, and Percy said, "Yo, dude, you aren't looking too good,"

"I'm guesssssing they gave me sssssnake DNA?" I rasped, annoyed that my voice sounded like a snake in a movie or cartoon. Was I going to slur my Ss for the rest of my miserable snaky life?

Piper nodded sadly and I asked, "What about you guys? Have they not given you DNA yet?"

"Actually, they did," Frank said, and Percy cried, "They did?"

"Yeah, I got sea cucumber DNA and Piper got...I'm guessing mimic octopus?"

"Uh...you look perfectly normal Frank," Percy muttered, and I finally found his eye pressed to one of the many air-holes in the crate.

"He was lucky he could shape-shift back to normal, he looked terrible," Piper said. Right now, I was wishing I could shape-shift too. I would do anything to get out of these itchy scales.

"So, what do I look like?" I asked Piper, who immediately blushed. Oops, I hadn't meant to make her uncomfortable. Was I really that bad? I mean, the scales made me look all shimmery and gave me a coppery tan look, but they were hard to see while relaxed. What was disturbing her so much?

"Why are you all staring at me like that?" I asked, and Piper stuttered embarrassedly, "Its...It's your eyes Jason. They...They look like snake eyes...

"Oh...weird..." I said, "I don't feel anything different with my eyessss. It'sss mainly my ssskin and my mouth that hurtsss right now."

"Oh, about your mouth Jason, uh...the DNA kind of made you grow fangs..." Percy said from the closed crate.

"SSSSAY WHAT?!" I cried, reaching up to feel my mouth. He was telling the truth. There were two needle sharp fang protruding from my upper jaw where my canines should have been. Feeling was finally coming back into my mouth, and I realized that the fangs had slots they fit into in my lower gums, because they were too long to fit with my mouth shut.

A few minutes later, feeling returned to my tongue.

"Uh, guysss, why didn't you tell me I have a forked tongue now?"

"You're kidding right?" Piper said, looking disgusted, and I attempted to stick out my tongue to show her. Instead, this long ropy snake tongue flicked out of my mouth, and my nose finally started working. On overdrive. I gagged from the bleach smell and nearly passed out again.

"Gods of Olympus..." Frank muttered, while Piper just stared in open-mouthed shock. Great. Now I was the entertaining freak of the gang. Did I mention that I was afraid of snakes? Guess I'd have to get over that phobia, considering I practically WAS one.

We sat in silence, me keeping my mouth shut so I wouldn't smell the horrific bleach. My sense of smell had completely gone away the moment I shut my mouth, and I had remembered that snakes smell with their tongues.

Leo was dragged in about a half hour later, screaming his head off. I looked at Piper and Frank. They were both cringing in disgust like they were smelling something bad. Leo looked fine, other than the fact that he was writhing like a snake and clutching his neck. I caught a glimpse of a metal collar beneath his hands and on instinct, I flicked out my tongue. The smell of burning flesh filled my sinuses and I gagged. My guess had been correct. They were burning the boy who couldn't be burned.


	12. Blood, Blood, and More Blood

**Leo:**

So far, I felt normal, which was a good sign. I had a slight backache from where an Eraser had kicked me repeatedly, but other than that, I just felt tired.

"So, Leo, is it obviousss what DNA they gave you, or are you normal sssstill?" Jason asked me from outside the dark cage.

"Normal. Slight backache but only because a stupid Wolf-man kicked me there," I answered.

"Sssso, they never knocked you out and injected you with DNA?" Jason asked, sounding relieved.

"Yeah, they didn't knock me out. They just cuffed me into a chair, drew my blood, left me for a while, then came back and injected me with some clear stuff. I tried to resist and was burning through the chair cuffs, but then this whitecoat lady had Erasers restrain me and put me in a chair made from the metal that me and Percy's cages are made from. Then, it was really weird, the whitecoat lady was all nice to me, and was feeding me this line of total bull how they were the good guys, and she said it was only a vaccine to protect me against Staph Infection, because it was going around. Then she gave me a popsicle and when I was done, she handed me over to the Erasers, who brought me back here," I said, rubbed my neck where they burnt me.

"How did they burn you anyway?" Jason asked.

"I dunno, it's probably because they shocked me, and unlike you _Sparky_ , I'm not immune to lightning," I said, congratulating myself on my comeback.

"Hey!" Jason protested, "Only Piper getsss to call me that!"

"Get used to me breaking the rules _Thunderpants,"_ I said, giving myself a mental hi-five for the new nickname. Boy, I was getting good at this... I should ladle out nicknames more often...

" _Thunderpantssss?!"_ Jason repeated in disbelief. There was silence and then Percy started to crack up from within his cage.

"Leo, you are such an idiot sometimes, I swear..." Piper said, and I laughed, "Hey, you said sometimes I'm an idiot. That means, most of the time, I'm _not_ an idiot! So, therefore, I am still mostly intelligent."

"Shut up Valdez," Piper said with a snort and I scratched my back. Man, it was starting to get itchy... Had I gotten bitten by a mosquito on top of everything else?

There was uncomfortable silence, and Percy sniggered under his breath "thunderpants..."

"What is taking them so long to bring in the others?" Frank asked suddenly, "Shouldn't Max be here? Nudge? Gazzy?"

 **Percy:**

I was still laughing about Jason's new nickname when Frank said, "What is taking them so long to bring in the others?"

My mind instantly switched to Annabeth. Were they going to give her DNA? Suddenly, a thought popped in my head that worried me immensely. What if that whitecoat lady had been lying when she said that the injection was only for Staph Infection. (For some reason I used to think it was spelled Staff Infection, because, you know, it went around members of the staff at the hospitals) The more I thought about it, I realized that she most likely had been lying, and had injected him full of animal DNA.

"Shouldn't Max be here? Nudge? Gazzy?" Frank continued and Fang laughed darkly, "No, I was the only one caught. I saw Annabeth getting dragged away and I went after her and got brained by an Eraser hiding behind a tree. The rest of the Flock is still out there."

Well...at least that was a relief. Less people to wait for and less chance of them pulling one of us out of the room before we were all here together. Him mentioning the flock seemed to make something click in my brain however. Hadn't Leo mentioned something about his back being sore? Mine had been sore and then it had started itching right before my wings sprouted. What if that was Avian DNA in that injection? Oh gods... They had drawn his blood, as if to make sure he was healthy and compatible for the transfer...

"Oh gods..." I muttered, "Leo, PLEASE tell me your back isn't itchy..."

"Huh?" he asked, "How did you know that my..."

"GOOD GODS OF OLYMPUS! I'm so sorry man!" I wailed, not wanting anyone else to go through the pain of instantly sprouting wings.

"What are you talking about dude? I think I got some mosquito bites. Yeah, now I feel the little bumps," Leo babbled.

"Leo," I said, deadly serious, "My shoulders were sore and then started itching right before I sprouted my wings. That shot she gave you wasn't a vaccine, it was a DNA injection."

There was silence and I imagined that everyone had paled quite a bit.

"Welcome to the Avian family, well, if you survive that is," Fang said grumpily.

"WHAT?!" Leo screeched thumping his cage walls. "I'm going to grow wings?! That's epic! Why are you sorry?!"

"Sure, once you grow them it's cool...It's the sprouting that's the worse part. You better brace yourself man, it hurts like Tartarus when they come out. I was lucky I didn't bleed to death," I told him, bracing _myself_ for the screaming and moaning to come. I felt terrible for the poor guy. He didn't even have anyone to hold his hand like I did. And whatever Max had done, pressing on my back, made the pain more bearable. Leo had zilch, just a dark cage like me.

"Wait, you're telling me that I might bleed to death in a few hours here?" Leo asked in terror, "I try _not_ to schedule when I bleed to death you know!"

"Hey, Percccy lived, you'll live too!" Jason hissed, and I shuddered. It was so weird, hearing my friend's voice so distorted. I could only imagine how much worse it was for Piper.

"I don't know how long it is before it starts...On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst, how itchy are you, and how big are the bumps?

"I dunno...The bumps are the size of large mosquito bites, and the itching, I would say, about a 8? They're pretty dang itchy, to the point of being painful,"

"You're getting really close then, it happened really soon after I started itching painfully," I said. Then Leo shrieked in pain and I sighed, "And the two hours of screaming begins...Oh joy..."

 **Leo:**

I screamed as pain erupted from my shoulder blades. So much for 'really close'. How about, RIGHT NOW! Hot blood sprayed the wall of the cage and I writhed in agony. This pain was worse than anything I'd ever felt before. I wished that someone would shoot me right here and now, and I'd go to Elysium and be reborn, because Hepheastus's Hand Grenades this was horrific! I don't how long I writhed in pain in a pool of my own blood but it seemed like a lifetime before my strength ran out and the screams died in my throat. I had screamed until I literally could not make another sound, and soon after, I collapsed, and to my relief, finally passed out from the pain.

I woke and found I could not sit up. The blood had congealed overnight and caked in my hair and every time I moved it hurt my head. I was glued to the bottom of my cage with my own dried blood. How pathetic.

"Ungh..." I groaned, my back hurting like Tartarus. Percy hadn't been kidding a bit when he said he'd almost bled out, I was submerged in a pool of blood almost a centimeter deep. I was woozy and light headed, even laying down. I decided I was probably better off staying down, seeing as I couldn't move anyways.

"Leo?!" cried Piper, and Percy yelled, "Thank the Gods!"

"Oh my godsss Leo, we thought you had died!" Jason hissed loudly, and I grinned, but found my lips sealed together with blood. GOOD GRIEF! I probably looked like I had taken a bath in blood, like that old royalty dude from the medieval time period did. I think his creepy bathing habits were actually where the story of Count Dracula originated from...I think.

"Ungh!" I grunted, and ripped open my mouth, tearing some skin on my lips and probably bleeding some more. Now, if I could just get my eyelids open. I pulled until I wanted to cry, not that I could, but my eyelids were sealed shut entirely.

"Hey...Percy? Did you...get stuck?" I groaned.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I could barely move without crinkling, but turns out, since blood is mostly water, I can control it."

"Thank the Gods! I can't even open my eyes. I am glued to the bottom of my cage!"

"You bled that much? How are you even alive?!" Piper cried in horror.

"I dunno..." I groaned, and suddenly, Percy grunted and the blood reliquified, climbed creepily up the walls of the cage and out the air holes and plopped to the floor.

"Wow. That is a LOT of blood. Dude, are you okay?" Percy asked, sounding slightly drunk.

"Are YOU okay?" Piper asked Percy.

"Uh...yeah, just took the energy right out of me though...I think...I'm going to take a nap now..." Percy yawned, and spoke no more. Soon, the sounds of his snoring filled the room.

I felt my wings in the dark. Percy's treatment had left them smooth and clean, and the down was now super fluffy. I tried to feel where they sprouted from, but bending my shoulders that much made me want to scream. I still could not believe I had wings... Now that the worse part was over, I could fly... On my own, without needing a flying ship or a metal dragon. Not that Festus still wasn't the best thing that ever happened to me... Oh wait, please delete that! Calypso is going to kill me!


End file.
